Thunderbolts and Lightning
by Flaming Trails
Summary: Doc, George and Lorraine, and Marty find themselves thinking about 1955 when a thunderstorm hits the night of November 12th, 1975. BackToTheFanFic LJ Community Challenge Fic.
1. Chapter 1

Thunderbolts and Lightning

By Flaming Trails

A BTTF: PreTime Story

Part 1

Wednesday, November 12th, 1975

Hill Valley

10:04 P.M.

BOOM!

Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown jerked awake, the loud crash of thunder startling sleep from his mind. Outside his window, there was a brilliant flash of lightning, followed closely by a second loud BOOM. "Great Scott!" Doc gasped, sitting up. "What a storm!"

He looked out his window to see the rain pouring down in sheets, almost completely obscuring the outside world. Lightning flashed in wild patterns overhead, illuminating the otherwise dark and dreary night. Although it had been miserable all day, Doc hadn't been prepared for anything quite like this. "I hope the power doesn't go out," he muttered to himself. "That would be very inconvenient."

Watching the storm, Doc remembered that the local weatherman had warned that they might get a severe thunderstorm on the evening news. Doc had mostly dismissed the warning -- it had been his experience that weathermen were notoriously bad at predicting the weather. But it appeared that, for once, the weatherman had been right.

_"Since when can weathermen predict the weather, let alone the future?"_

The voice popped unbidden into Doc's head, bringing a smile to his lips. Then again, maybe it had less to do with the weatherman and more to do with the date. After all, it would only be appropriate for there to be another thunderstorm on the 20-year anniversary of the greatest storm Hill Valley had ever seen. The one that had stopped the town clock, and helped send a young time traveler back to his home time. November 12th was a particularly special day for Doc Brown -- he had even taken the day off inventing and had instead spent it remembering. _Great Scott,_he thought, as more lightning flashed._ 20 years. So much has changed since then. We've had the Vietnam war, the hippie movement, Woodstock, the start of disco. . . . And on a more personal level we have my time at the local university, my mansion burning down, George McFly wedding Lorraine Baines, and their birth of their three kids, Dave, Linda and --_

_Marty. . . ._

Doc felt a sudden pang. All these thoughts about 1955 and the McFlys made him miss Marty. The teenager had really managed to brighten his days back in 1955. Doc had never met anyone before who had seemed so interested in his inventions, whether they worked or not. Who had seemed so interested in _him_, for that matter. Doc had felt like he could talk about anything with Marty, anything at all. It didn't matter if the teen didn't understand a word -- he'd listen anyway. Doc could easily see why his older self had chosen to befriend the boy. _How long will it take?_he thought sadly, watching the rain beat against the window pane. _I know I have to wait for Marty to make the first move, to avoid altering the space-time continuum, but -- I'm getting impatient. I miss him, damn it. Even with all the trouble he caused in 1955, I miss him. I want to help him again, I want to show off for him again, I want to do mundane things like watch TV with him again._

_I -- I want my friend back._

Lightning flashed in a jagged line across the sky. Doc looked at it and remembered the last time he had encountered lightning -- climbing up the Clock Tower in a desperate attempt to get Marty home to 1985. The concept of time had been so mysterious to him back then, despite his obsession with clocks and watches. The revelation that he would discover how to transverse it had nearly blown his mind. Back then, he had seen time as a great force, relentlessly and mindlessly moving forward and pushing the earth and all its inhabitants with it.

Now, though, with all the studying he'd done on the subject, time seemed much more -- human. A manic-depressive human, given how it swung between good times and bad, but human nonetheless. It could be fickle or generous, loving or harsh -- but it always seemed to know what to do in the end. _I suppose I'll just have to trust in time,_Doc thought, watching the storm for a moment more. _I'll meet him someday. I know I will. And, until then, I've always got my memories._Smiling, Doc lay down and drifted back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

Wednesday, November 12th, 1975

Hill Valley

10:04 P.M.

BOOM!

"Look at it out there! Look at that lightning! Lorraine, wake up, you gotta see this! It's just like the storm that was in Frankenstein!"

Lorraine Baines McFly smirked as she opened her eyes. It was no surprise to her that her husband, George McFly, was already awake and watching the storm. George was a sweet and intelligent man, but he could be a little nutty about anything that reminded him of science fiction. _Then again, I suppose if he wasn't a little nutty about it, he never would have gotten so far in his writing. . . ._

"Come on, Lorry, this is amazing stuff!"

Lorraine sat up. George was leaning on the windowsill, staring raptly at the night sky. Joining him, she could see large bolts of lightning streaking across the night sky, accompanied by loud booms and roars of thunder. George gave her a 200-megawatt smile. "Isn't it incredible?"

"It is," Lorraine had to agree. "But I don't think it's as incredible as the one that happened 20 years ago."

"I think you're right," George nodded. "I doubt any of these bolts could stop a clock." He grinned at the sky. "Still fun to watch, though."

Lorraine giggled. "Were you watching the famous storm out your window back in 1955?" she asked, affectionately putting her arm around him.

"Of course. There was no point in going to sleep -- I was too excited. It's not every day that the school nerd punches out the school bully, after all." He winked at Lorraine. "_And_ wins the heart of the prettiest girl in school."

"Well, it's not every day that we find out that the school nerd is the best kisser in school either." Lorraine put her head on George's shoulder. "Things certainly have changed since then, huh? 1975 seemed so far away when I was 17. Now I'm 37, a college graduate, and a housewife with three kids."

"And I'm a published author," George nodded. "I _never_thought I'd get this far with my writing when I was 17. Hell, I never thought I'd even _show_ my stories to anyone else."

"What made you change your mind?"

"What else? Calvin 'Marty' Klein. If it hadn't been for him, I probably would have been too scared to try publishing my stories. Not to mention ever approach you." George sighed. "We owe a lot to Calvin."

"We certainly do," Lorraine said. "Without him, we probably wouldn't be here right now, happily married with three wonderful kids." She frowned thoughtfully. "Although, I've always wondered -- why _was_ he so intent on getting us together?"

"I don't know," George shrugged. "I've wondered that myself. Maybe he was just some sort of supernatural match maker, dropped from the sky to help us out."

"I somehow doubt that," Lorraine chuckled.

"Hey, you never know. He did seem to drop off the face of the earth after he got us together."

"He did say he was with the Coast Guard. Maybe he got shipped off somewhere and couldn't find a way to write." Lorraine glanced up at George. "I kinda miss him."

"I know. So do I. He was a good guy, Cal. I'm glad we named Marty after him."

"Me too. I love you, George."

"I love you too, Lorraine."


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Wednesday, November 12th, 1975

Hill Valley

10:04 P.M.

BOOM!

For one terrifying moment, Martin Seamus McFly thought the world was ending. Then as the sleepiness cleared from his mind, he realized that what he had thought was some sort of death-ray blast was actually thunder. "Wow," he breathed. "It must be one heck of a storm out there!"

He rushed to the window to get a look. The rain was pouring down, making Marty feel like he was living inside a waterfall. Lightning streaked overhead, making interesting but short-lived patterns across the dark sky. And accompanying it was a steady roll of thunder. The seven-year-old was enthralled. "Whoa. . . . I bet this is the worst storm anybody in Hill Valley's ever seen!"

But even as he said the words, Marty knew they weren't true. His mom and dad had talked enough about a thunderstorm in 1955, on this very date no less, to know that _that_storm was the worst in Hill Valley. Still, this one was pretty bad. _Maybe this one will end up restarting the clock that the other one stopped. Then it'll bet the worst storm, instead of that 1955 one._

1955. Although it was only 20 years in the past, to Marty, it was ancient history. _Man. Back then, I wasn't even born yet. I wasn't even _thought of_ yet! That's weird. And Mom and Dad -- they said they didn't even _meet_ until 1955! With that whole "Enchantment Under The Sea" thing, and Calvin Klein. . . ._

Marty didn't know what to make of the stories about Calvin Klein. According to George and Lorraine, he was the whole reason they were together -- well, him and that lunkhead Biff Tannen. Calvin had worked tirelessly for a whole week to get them together, then just vanished into thin air. Although they had never seen him again, in gratitude George and Lorraine had named their two sons for him -- David Calvin for his first name (would have been Calvin David if Grandpa Sam hadn't insisted on the other way around), and Marty after Calvin's preferred nickname. _That's funny that he would try to hard to get Mom and Dad together, then wouldn't even stick around to see them get married or anything. Maybe Dad's right and he _was_ an alien. _Something's _up with that, anyway. Wish I could meet him so I could ask him. But nobody knows anything about him, except for Mom and Dad --_

_And Dr. Brown._

Dr. Brown. There was another enigma for you. Most people said that Hill Valley's local inventor and repairman was crazy -- that he'd blown up his own house, that he experimented on his pet dogs and stray animals, and that he was trying to build some sort of death ray or other dangerous thing in his garage home to vaporize his enemies. But George and Lorraine, while not exactly _approving_ of him, seemed to think that he was all right. "He's Calvin Klein's 'uncle' -- he can't be all bad," they had said once, when Marty had asked. And earlier today, Marty had spotted him shopping in the grocery store while Lorraine scolded Linda about trying to sneak cookies into their cart. He had seemed pretty normal then -- albeit with the strangest hairdo Marty had ever seen. He had noticed the kid looking at him and had given him a surprising friendly smile, before heading into another aisle. _Well, I guess that if he is dangerous, it's a good thing he likes me._

Marty yawned. The storm had lost its appeal -- there was only so many times you could watch the lightning race across the sky. And all this hard thinking about the past had only added to his previous exhaustion. _I bet it'll all make sense when I'm older. Right now, I gotta get some sleep. We've got that big spelling test tomorrow and I want to get an A._Dismissing all thoughts of Dr. Brown, Calvin Klein, and 1955 from his brain, he curled up underneath the covers and went back to sleep.

The End


End file.
